News
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
PEPCO exempts textile industry from load shedding* DG Muhammad Khalid denies conducting unannounced power outages
By Zeeshan Javaid
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) on Tuesday decided to exempt the textile industry from electricity load shedding, which will benefit 80 mills while 200 mills will still have to face the menace, Daily Times learnt
on Tuesday.PEPCO Director General (DG) Engineer Muhammad Khalid, talking to Daily Times, said that after an improvement in the power supply, the textile sector would be exempted from load shedding but on a short-term basis only those textile mills and units would benefit which receive electricity from independent feeders.
Despite this statement of the PEPCO DG, textile mills and units of Lahore, Gujranwala, Faislabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar continued to face load shedding of around four hours per day. Khalid said that as soon as the gas supply to thermal plants improves, the duration of the load shedding would be reduced gradually. He said PEPCO was fully committed to the implementation of the Energy Conversation Plan (ECP) across the country and would use all its resources to curb the menace of load shedding.
According to Federal Water and Power Ministry data, the power shortfall in the country stands at 3,852 megawatts (MW), with total power production hovering around 10,439 MW.
Separately, talking to a private TV channel, Khalid said that no announced load shedding was being conducted in the country and the power outages had been reduced by 33 percent after the implementation of the ECP. The PEPCO DG said due to closure of markets at 8pm, the situation had improved.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk